phnom penh
the more i travel, the more i become convinced that a place is capable of having a certain innate quality that renders it far greater than the sum of its obvious attractions. some cities just do not possess this unquantifiable quality (mandalay, mumbai), others you have to coax it out (kolkata, saigon), but for others it becomes apparent fairly rapidly. i'm happy to say that, despite appearances, phnom penh falls into the latter category.there is a traveller ghetto, a khao san road with some integrity, which means that cheap accomodation and people to talk to are abundant. it also means however that if you resist the temptation to jump on the back of a moto to the nearest tourist spot and actually walk, you can find yourself in a little cambodian suburb, without a henna tatoo or beer lao t-shirt in sight, in minutes. phnom penh also benefits from having been a french colonial headquarters: they may not have been very nice to the natives, but sweeping boulevards and attractive, rather than aggressively imposing, buildings are a happy legacy that stay with a city.
i only arrived at around 2pm so i've just had a meander about and it's been really pleasant. tomorrow i'm going to go to s21 (where the khmer rouge tortured people) and the killing fields (self explanatory) so you may fnd me in a more reflective mood.
posted by bicrom @ 12:32 pm
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